


Crossing the Threshold

by Vrazdova



Category: Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab
Genre: Awkward Threesome Proposals, M/M, Multi, Post-Book(s), Rhy is a masochist and sucks at being a dom, Sexual Frustration, Soulbond Kink, assumptions of an optimistic ending to ACoL lol, but this is basically PWP let's be real, mentions of Kell/Lila, you can interpret the triad with or without Kell/Rhy flavor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 19:23:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6718594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vrazdova/pseuds/Vrazdova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kell is going to have to come to terms with what his intimate connection to Rhy means for him - especially with regard to the prince's relationship with Alucard.</p>
<p>It doesn't have to be so complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crossing the Threshold

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to do something filthy with that soulbond business t b h ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> This fic makes assumptions about (and glosses over) whatever may be revealed in the yet-unreleased third book - only because this wouldn't really fit in anywhere during the timeline of AGoS. I'm sure it will not be canon-compliant after February 2017!

Raucous laughter ripped through the halls of the Red London palace as three young men made their way to the hall of bedchambers. They were a storm of stumbling footsteps and half-drunken shouts over one another’s conversation, cheeks flush with wine and stretched wide in boyish grins. Kell felt a twinge of guilt as they passed a disgruntled-looking guard, clearly upset that the nighttime quiet had been so rudely disrupted. He normally avoided invoking his ability to get away with acting like a royal brat, but tonight was an exception. It had been the most enjoyable evening he’d had in… longer than he could remember, really. He wasn’t about to dampen his own mood for the sake of courtesy.

Rhy tripped as he mounted a step and Kell caught him by the arm.

“How many drinks did you have?” said Kell, knowing full well that neither of them had actually gone that deep into their cups. Even _that_ was a testament to how naturally pleasant the evening had been.

“Just enough to feel a tickle in my brain,” said Rhy, his hair suddenly fluttering in a magical breeze. The prince threw a playful accusatory look at Alucard, who extended his palms in defense, as though proving he was empty-handed meant he’d conjured no magic. Rhy grabbed Alucard’s hands and tightly laced their fingers together. “You don’t have to show off to compensate for other things, I promise.”

“All right, you two are getting sappy; I’m bowing out before this becomes a third-wheel situation.” Kell stopped at the door to his rooms and went for the handle. Rhy detached himself from Alucard long enough to throw his arms around his brother’s neck.

“I’m so happy you’re getting along with him again,” said Rhy softly. His breath tickled Kell’s ear.

Kell returned Rhy’s embrace. “If you’re happy, I’m happy. It’s always been about that.” He stepped back toward the door as Rhy let him go. The prince returned to Alucard’s side and Kell waved them off. “I’m going to bed. Don’t keep… the whole palace up.” He was simply going to say _me_ , but had quickly thought better of it.

Rhy put on his most innocent face, which he maintained for all of two seconds. “Wouldn’t dream of being so rude. Anyway, why don’t you wave a flag off your balcony and see if Lila shows up?”

“ _Not in the mood—!_ “

Rhy laughed and tugged on Alucard’s arm. Alucard caught Kell’s eye and held his gaze for just a moment — not as a challenge, but nevertheless in a way that felt meaningful — before following the prince to the next door down the hall.

Kell quietly closed his own with a click, hesitating with his forehead against the wood. This was fine — everything seemed fine, didn’t it? Alucard was on good behavior, Rhy was on cloud nine, and that was all that really mattered. He didn’t need to be overbearingly protective of Rhy in _every_ regard; his brother (future King, after all) was perfectly capable of making his own decisions — even when it came to rekindling an old and unpredictable flame. With a sigh, he pushed himself off the door and unbuttoned his coat as he walked across the room.

The coat — red with gold fittings, for the semi-formal party the three of them had successfully transformed into a much rowdier affair — was tossed over an armchair before he threw the balcony doors open. The cool night breeze sobered him, and for a brief moment, he really did wonder if Lila might appear at the wave of a banner. He immediately scoffed at himself for having such a thought; that was some romantic-play nonsense. After _everything_ they’d been through — heated arguments and even hotter reconciliations, all — she still remained as elusive as ever. It kept things exciting when their paths actually did cross, to say the least. But it also left a lot of room for loneliness.

_After such a good night, you’re going to wrap it up by wallowing in depression?_ he chided himself. How very _Kell_.

He turned his back to the open air and poured himself a shot of blue liquor. It was some sugary garbage Rhy had left in his room a few nights prior, but it lacked the connotation of self-loathing that came with solo drinking stronger stuff. _I’m not drowning sorrows_ , he told himself as he tipped the glass back. _I’m celebrating… new beginnings._ He grimaced as the taste — somewhere between blackberry and mint — hit his throat.

And it _was_ true. He and Alucard had been friends, or at least friendly acquaintances, many years ago. Tonight was one of those times when he remembered what he’d initially liked about the man. Alucard Emery was charismatic, intelligent, witty — all of which made him dangerous, of course, which he himself had proven when things initially went south between him and Rhy. But Kell had seen firsthand Alucard’s devotion to his brother when the prince’s life was in danger, and Kell had to respect that. He respected it _a lot_ , frankly, and even though Alucard still had a tendency to take things too far (Lila’s voice then chimed in to remind Kell to _check his coat pockets for a damn sense of humor sometime_ ), the way Rhy’s eyes would light up when Alucard walked in the room was the final word in the matter.

Not to mention that the two of them presently had a much more stable relationship than Lila and Kell himself, so who was he to judge, honestly.

_How about one more shot!_

He reached for the blue bottle once again as a shiver ran down his spine.

* * *

Rhy gasped and threw his head back. Alucard’s lips moved down Rhy’s jaw, to his throat, to the side of his neck, where he sucked at the skin, inhaling the scent of Rhy’s perfume tinged with sweat.

“Don’t leave a mark!” said Rhy with a laugh. “It’s too hot to have to wear a collar for the next week.”

Alucard gleefully ignored this order until Rhy pushed him back. “Show it off. It’d be tantalizing.”

“I do have some dignity, believe it or not.” Rhy grabbed the sides of Alucard’s face and pulled him in for a kiss, crushing their lips together. They embraced hungrily, like lovers long-separated by oceans and adventures and life and death itself — which, truly, they were. Rhy shifted himself closer to the edge of the vanity upon which he sat and wrapped his legs around Alucard’s lower back.

“Is this what you mean by dignified, then?” said Alucard through a grin. “I can’t promise that fucking on the furniture won’t leave a mark either.”

Rhy snaked his fingers through Alucard’s hair and carefully grabbed a fistful at the roots — not pulling, but he held a steady grip. “Then take me to the bed, wiseass,” he growled against Alucard’s lips.

Alucard remained still for a moment as Rhy maintained a hold on his hair. Then he nipped at the prince’s bottom lip. “Not with all that clothing still on.”

Rhy released him and leaned back into the wall, face flushed with desire. He dropped his legs to the sides as Alucard moved in, pushing their hips together and kissing him again — softer and more deliberate this time. Alucard’s fingers moved to the fastenings of Rhy’s tunic, and he undid them achingly slowly, Rhy’s pulse rising in equal and opposite anticipation. Rhy sighed as at last the fabric slid down his shoulders and Alucard took a moment to plant kisses across his collarbone and down his chest. He paused at the circular scars over his heart.

“Don’t…” said Rhy quietly, putting a hand lightly under Alucard’s jaw. There was no need to prod Kell any more than they most certainly were already this evening — a truth which came with a certain degree of guilt, but Rhy just couldn’t ignore the heat below his belt, or deny himself the base pleasures in store for the night. He hoped Kell would find a way to enjoy himself in tandem, anyhow; it was a shame he always seemed so… uptight about these things.

Rhy tipped Alucard’s head back to look at him, then traced a finger up and down the side of his cheek, nail grazing across his chin, around his mouth—

Alucard parted his lips and took Rhy’s finger between them, closing tight around it as Rhy pulled it back out with a faint, wet pop.

Despite maintaining his calculated expression — heavy lids, eyebrows perked, a sultry pout — Rhy’s breathing suddenly became audible.

* * *

“Fuck, here we go.”

Kell’s heart fluttered in his chest, even as he did nothing more remarkable than stare at the ceiling over his bed. This wasn’t the first time this had happened, but up until now, he’d been blessed with timely distractions close at hand. He wondered how his brother handled himself during the (admittedly rarer) occasions when their positions were reversed. They hadn’t much discussed it since the first time they realized their bound souls shared both pain _and_ pleasure.

And in Rhy’s case, as Kell had unwittingly discovered, those two things had a knack for overlapping.

He sat up and threw a glance at the table of liquor bottles, eyeing not the blue-tinted crap this time. Would it be irresponsible to get wasted right now? He grimaced, knowing he shouldn’t (and _wouldn’t_ ) put Rhy in that predicament without warning, especially at a time like this. Normally if this started up while he was in the palace, he would go down to the Basin to blow off steam for an hour. But after a night of exhaustive socializing, the last thing his body wanted to do was drag itself out of his room and down several flights of stairs for a midnight sparring session. Truthfully, all his body _really_ wanted to do was lie back and—

Kell pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes till he saw stars. They had to figure out how to deal with this; they couldn’t go the rest of their lives with such a private door thrown wide open between them. At least not if they were going to tiptoe past it, trying to pretend it was still a solid wall.

As if on cue, a sharp ring of pain pinged his left shoulder just over the bone, and he felt a rush of blood to his groin.

* * *

“I said no marks,” said Rhy breathily, though he just barely meant it this time. His feet had made it back to the floor, along with both of their tunics and half of Rhy’s jewelry, and he was fumbling with the closure of Alucard’s trousers as the man in question made to bite his other shoulder.

Then instead, Alucard buried his face in the crook of Rhy’s neck and laughed quietly. “You’re so bad at this. How are you so bad at this?” He lifted Rhy’s hands away from his errant clothing and kissed the prince’s knuckles, unable to wipe the smile from his lips as he did so.

“You’re distracting me,” said Rhy, stealing Alucard’s lips back to his own. He wrapped his arms around Alucard’s neck and squirmed as he felt fingers slip under his belt. Seconds later, Rhy was stepping out of his remaining garments, with Alucard’s hands running over his bare hips.

“A king has to be able to act under pressure. Has to keep a cool head no matter what’s going on around him,” said Alucard. He dug his fingers into the curves of Rhy’s ass.

Fully engorged and blushing furiously once again, Rhy pushed Alucard toward the bed. “Then I guess you’ll have to keep training me, because there’s no way I can concentrate on ruling a kingdom in this state.”

“—More practice,” mumbled Alucard between Rhy’s lips as they both worked Alucard’s trousers off until they were properly kicked to the floor as well. Alucard dropped down to the edge of the bed and Rhy climbed onto his lap, straddling him with knees dipping into the mattress. Rhy ground his hips forward hungrily as they embraced, and Alucard’s cock twitched in response. The prince shifted so that their shafts aligned, and then reached down to grasp them both in one hand. He was delighted to hear Alucard groan in response.

Rhy languorously pumped his hand up and down several times, kissing Alucard’s jaw at each gasp. Alucard slid his arms around Rhy’s slight waist and up his back. Then he broke into a wolfish grin at the sound of Rhy’s cry as he dragged his nails heavily down the prince’s soft skin.

* * *

Kell rolled onto his side and arched his back, sucking air between his teeth. He was fairly certain he’d heard Rhy’s voice through the walls at that one — or was it just in his head? Regardless, the entire length of his back stung almost like he’d been whipped, and it was impossible to pretend he could ignore what was going on in the other room anymore.

He threw an arm over his eyes as he steadied his breath. He should’ve gone down to the Basin. But his body betrayed him again as he felt the tightness in his trousers and a stubborn refusal to simply get up, splash water on his face, and head downstairs. At this point, his fingers itched to reach for himself.

What would _that_ mean?

It didn’t have to be so… upsetting if he compartmentalized it. There were plenty of other people he could bring to mind if he decided to indulge. There was… well, there was Lila.

Kell groaned and gingerly shifted onto his other side. He didn’t want to bring thoughts of _her_ into this mess. _That way madness lies._

That was a line from a Grey-world story, wasn’t it?

He felt like no matter what he did, he was going to keep digging himself deeper and deeper until the tempest either swallowed him whole or mercifully blew over. And in this very moment, he didn’t have much hope for the latter.

* * *

Alucard’s hair was once again tangled between Rhy’s fingers, but the prince could hardly claim control of the situation this time. Back propped against a mountain of pillows and his lover’s face buried between his legs, he barely suppressed sounds of pleasure as Alucard deftly worked the muscles of his lips and tongue around Rhy’s shaft. Rhy writhed and moaned beneath him, trying desperately to maintain an authoritative grip on his roots, yet not really caring that his illusion of dominance, however thin it may have been to begin with, had completely shattered by that point.

It was almost a blessing when Alucard came up for air, for as badly as Rhy’s body yearned for release, the rest of him greedily hoped to extend this encounter well into the night. Alucard stretched his body atop Rhy’s and kissed him deeply, and Rhy could taste a bit of himself on Alucard’s tongue.

“You squirm so much,” said Alucard when they broke, voice dripping with lust. “I love it.”

“I could melt in your mouth,” breathed Rhy, and he slipped his tongue between Alucard’s lips. The prince rolled their bodies over and seated himself atop Alucard, pushing him back into the plush mattress. Rhy splayed his fingers and ran his hands sensuously down Alucard’s chest, caressing his nipples along the way.

“You should pierce these,” Rhy mused, and flicked his tongue over the left one. He enjoyed the way it hardened in response.

Alucard chuckled softly. “I’m not as much of a pain slut as you, your highness.”

“What if I made that an order?”

“Pulling rank, are we?”

Rhy cocked an eyebrow. “Is that any way to speak to your prince?” He grabbed Alucard’s wrists and pinned them over his head with a sneer. As he leaned in, intending to further demonstrate his dominance with a rough kiss, Alucard easily broke free of his grasp and poked Rhy in the ribs with the tips of his fingers, eliciting a shriek of laughter.

Alucard pulled the younger man down into the pillows beside him. “I could sling you over my shoulder and fight off your brother with one free hand — and _still_ win,” he whispered, as though confessing some momentously romantic secret. “You can’t overpower me.” He smoothed Rhy’s hair, which had knotted into wild tangles over the course of the evening.

“Stop!” cried Rhy, still laughing. “Let me have this one thing!”

“It’s okay, shhh.” Alucard pulled him into a tight consoling embrace. “You’re a bloodthirsty dictator in the bedchamber. An absolute tyrant. Feel better?”

“No,” said Rhy, pushing himself out of Alucard’s arms and onto his elbows. “If you’re _really_ intent on humiliating me tonight, then do it right.”

Alucard hesitated, waiting to see where this went. In response, Rhy merely flashed him a wicked grin.

* * *

Kell’s hand slowed and he exhaled, only then realizing he’d been holding his breath. He hadn’t finished, but the feelings being transmitted from Rhy had suddenly dropped in intensity. Were they done already? He’d expected the end to be more… explosive.

He’d found he thankfully didn’t really need to think about _anyone_ to keep up the pace, although that in its own right was a blatant reminder of _why_ he was lying in bed alone with his hand in his pants well past midnight. This wasn’t fair. And after _such a good night_ , to have to end it like this…

The evening’s cocktail of emotions, intrusive arousal and alcohol was starting to make him feel delirious. This really would be a whole lot simpler if there were someone else in the room. He kept getting the distinct sensation of contact with another body, and at this point, the most unsettling thing was opening his eyes to find no nails grazing his back or hands pulling his hair. He’d never even found those things to be particularly tantalizing — but he could understand it, on some level. Perhaps his own penchant for fighting fulfilled a similar need for self-control via physical stress, and what Kell was able to express openly, Rhy satisfied behind closed doors.

But that one door between them remained permanently open now, and he wondered, then, if Rhy was perhaps even holding himself back (tonight, and on other nights like this) because of it.

He already knew he’d done a shit job of affording Rhy that same courtesy — the fact they shared this intimate connection at _all_ was the ultimate testament to that. It was the trump card that always shut Kell down whenever he started to get too surly about their delicate situation. As he began to grow harder again in his own hand, the thought that maybe this didn’t _have_ to be so complicated trickled into his mind.

What they shared was already set irreversibly in place. How they handled it was entirely up to them.

His pulse — _Rhy’s_ pulse — quickened in anticipation. A new sting of pain jolted through his body and he gasped, sweat prickling his forehead.

For an instant, he thought he caught a whiff of Alucard’s scent, expected to see the sea captain’s face hovering over his shoulder. _That isn’t how this works. The connection isn’t like that._ He could almost imagine he _was_ Rhy, with Alucard pressed up against his back, hands snaking down his torso, grasping his cock—

Kell squirmed. He was alone in his chamber. _Alone._ He was not Rhy, nor was he _with_ Rhy and Alucard. Regardless of what he felt, he was indulging independently of whatever was happening in the next room over. But _oh_ how his heart suddenly ached, how the empty space next to him felt like a void, how the lack of another’s touch on his skin left him cold. What was initially annoyance was suddenly, deeply torturous in ways he’d never expected. He wanted this to be over as badly as his body yearned for release.

Images of Alucard flashed through his mind. It was at once far too easy to picture the way his face might look in the throes of passion, brow furrowed as he strained to maintain balance through his movements. Sweat glistened across Alucard’s brown shoulders, muscles rippling beneath his skin as he thrust his hips with the grace of a rolling wave. Rhy moved with the same rhythm, back arched into Alucard’s chest as he straddled his lap in reverse, drowning in ecstasy.

They writhed like a single entity. Rhy’s hair was wild, sweat-soaked curls covering his eyes. He felt Alucard wrap an arm around his chest, then his fingers danced their way to his chin and teased his lips. And then two were knuckle-deep in his mouth, just as Alucard began to thrust harder, and Rhy let out a strangled moan.

Alucard’s motions began to falter, his breaths growing ragged and audible. Rhy sucked on his fingers, saliva running down his chin, until he felt a twitch inside of him, followed by the fluid rush of Alucard’s climax.

With a groan, Alucard slipped his fingers from Rhy’s mouth and let his muscles go slack, but only for a moment. His saliva-slicked hand was quickly around Rhy’s cock, pumping with slow but heavy intensity. He reached his other hand up around the prince’s chest again, this time wrapping his fingers deliberately around his throat. Rhy tipped his head back in supplication.

Rhy’s pulse pounded in his neck. The pressure Alucard applied — with each hand — was enough to drive him mad. He began to moan with every exhale, until he could hold himself back no longer, and he spilled onto his chest and Alucard’s hand in ecstatic release.

Rhy settled back against Alucard, feeling the mad flutter of their heartbeats gradually slow their pace. He turned his head to meet his lover for a deep, languid kiss, and in that moment he had the unmistakable sensation that a second heart was beating alongside his own.

* * *

Kell didn’t possess the energy to feel — disgusted? disappointed? — in himself at this point. He didn’t care what it meant, or if it even _meant_ anything at all. If he was going to be dragged along for the ride anyway, why not go willingly? Some things, he’d learned, weren’t really worth fighting in the end. He wiped his hands on his tunic and pulled it over his head, tossing it to the floor. Then he buckled his belt, threw open the door and stormed down the hall, ignoring sideways glances from the guards.

The steamy warmth of the baths greeted him like an embrace. He made little ceremony of kicking off his trousers, scrubbing himself clean and then settling into a large, herbal-scented pool in the next room. The water was just shy of scalding, which he knew would turn his pale skin a ridiculous shade of pink by the time he got out. What did it matter, if there was no one to look at him anyway—

Voices echoed around the corner, and it wasn’t much of a stretch to guess who it was.

Kell eased his arms back onto the ledge of the bath and closed his eyes. On some level, he was glad for the opportunity to deal with this right away. If he waited till the sun rose, he’d likely find an excuse or three to avoid the subject until the next uncomfortable encounter, and the cycle would start all over again.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, relishing in the clean scents of perfumed oils and soap. It helped clear his head — to the point that he realized he had no idea _what_ he was going to say when the time actually came for him to speak. He’d thought he’d sorted out his feelings already, but the time and space between his bed and the baths had managed to jumble them all up again. He didn’t _want_ to think about it anymore, all it did was make him tired and confused — but he didn’t have the luxury of simply not-thinking. The thoughts and feelings and alarmingly vivid physical sensations were just another passionate night away, the timing of which he could never predict.

Desperation began to set in. He let himself slip entirely beneath the surface of the water. It burned at his nostrils, eyelids, scalp. He wondered if it was intense enough that Rhy would feel it too. He wondered...

He really wanted to know what Rhy was feeling, truth be told.

When he resurfaced, he found he wouldn’t have to wait long to get an answer. Rhy and Alucard rounded the corner just as Kell slicked his hair back, and the two of them hesitated in the doorway.

“Ooh. Walk of shame,” said Rhy with an awkward grin. But he continued on to his destination and confidently descended the steps into the bath, Alucard at his heels. “Mind if we join?”

Rhy’s hair just brushed the top of his shoulders when wet. As he dipped in, the water rose to greet his sharp collarbones, framing him like an elegant sculpture. The scars over his heart stood out in silvery contrast to his dark skin, flushed an even deeper hue in the heat of the baths. Beside him, Alucard cut a far more muscled figure, taller and broader and generally filled-out where Rhy was lean. Alucard looked like he naturally belonged in the water, his wet hair carelessly flipped to one side, skin handsomely sun-browned from years at sea. He flashed a tentatively sly look at Kell as he slipped into the pool, the water’s surface barely rippling.

Kell wasn’t normally one to dwell on appearances, but in that moment he was painfully aware of his steadily reddening palette, his strange black eye and the bouquet of scars across his arms and hands. Everything about their differences was amplified further by the recent memory of their graceful fucking while Kell tugged on himself in his wide, empty bed. Subconsciously, he sank a bit lower in his seat.

“Trouble sleeping, Kell?” It was Alucard who spoke, studying him carefully.

“A bit restless, yeah.” He fought to keep his composure. “Did you two have a nice night?”

“We did.” Rhy glided across the bench, closing the short distance between them. There was something foxlike about his expression, curiosity in his eyes and anticipation at the corners of his mouth. “Did you?”

Kell’s breath hitched ever so slightly. “Could’ve been better.” His eyes followed Alucard as he slid into place next to Rhy, reclined back and casually draped an arm behind the prince on the ledge of the bath.

They knew. They had to; both of them. Everything about their movements, their postures, this stilted dialogue that just barely maintained the pretense of ignorance. Rhy and Alucard had most certainly already acknowledged it to each other, probably discussed it in the denouement between climax and the present moment. They had peered through the doorway and seen everything. They knew he’d been there, seeking invitation to cross the threshold.

The thrum of a second heartbeat pulsed in Kell’s throat. His gaze flitted from Rhy to Alucard and back again, to each of their own scars; over hearts, between ribs, circling wrists. He was in good company — _understanding_ company, if anything. The three of them had been through hell together, and where he and Rhy shared _life_ , he could admit he shared something significant with Alucard too. “If you… were interested… in having me along sometime,” he said slowly, choosing his words with aching care. “Being that I already have my foot in the door, in a sense…” There was no hope of hiding the visible rise and fall of his chest as his lungs suddenly demanded ever greater quantities of oxygen.

Rhy relieved him by gently hooking an arm around Kell’s and brushing his nose along the rim of his brother’s ear.

“If that would make you happy,” he said, voice barely above a whisper, “it would make me _immensely_ happy.”

Kell shivered despite the now-oppressive heat of the baths. “I don’t want you to agree out of _pity_ , though—” he started, his stomach suddenly dropping.

“I think the only one pitying you is yourself,” said Alucard with a smirk and a lazy drawl. Reaching behind Rhy’s shoulders, he traced a finger along Kell’s jawline and tapped his bottom lip. There was a glint in his eyes that screamed _challenge_ ; his open posture the bait.

That was enough to snap Kell back to his senses. He tried to glare at Alucard, but the shared memory _just how good he’d felt_ sent thrillingly conflicting messages to his extremities. Kell returned Alucard’s sly smile as he thought about how satisfying it would be to toss him around the bedroom _himself_ next time — and actually succeed where Rhy was happy to surrender.

“In that case,” said Kell, beginning to rise, “I’ll see you two later.” Rhy’s fingers lingered over his hand as he stood. “I’m off to sleep. This evening was already rather exhausting.”

Rhy smiled and curled up next to Alucard. “Sweet dreams,” he said, their limbs beginning to tangle once more. Alucard’s eyes conspicuously followed Kell for an extra beat before he turned his attention back to the prince.

Kell stepped out of the basin and grabbed a fresh robe, throwing it over his shoulders. He was looking forward to his wide, empty bed now, knowing that sleep would take him as soon as his head hit the pillow. But further comfort — and intrigue — came from the knowledge that he didn’t _have_ to spend the night alone if he didn’t want to, even during these stretches when no roguish thieves graced him with their company.

But he’d save that pleasure for next time.


End file.
